Brande Arno Art

8 x 10 inches, Oil on Gessoboard  $ 325.  Includes Floater Frame  Buy Here It took a while, but finally Hermit is finished.  I really had trouble with the 'hood that Hermit lives in.  Mostly, I didn't want Hermit to look like Nik Wallenda.   Just like any painting that stretches an artist...there were many failed attempts to bring all the pieces of this painting together and getting along with each other.  Finally it happened.   

"Smudge" 8 x 10 inches Oil on Gessoboard  $ 220.  Framed  Buy with Paypal Smudge is a rare black squirrel who has taken up housekeeping in my backyard.  He mostly stays in the back while his grey cousins spend all day working my bird feeders.  Not that any squirrel would ever go hungry if they could just remember where they hid the plentiful acorns and black walnuts.   Smudge was painted from a photo I took a few weeks ago.  He's not a real big squirrel.  My guess is either he's the runt or a teenager.  Of course, when I first spied him, I didn't have my camera.  So I said a quick prayer, got my camera and hoped he'd still be up the tree when I got back to the window.  He was!  This almost never happens.  I cannot tell you how many wonderful pictures I missed because the camera doesn't hang on my neck. 

The Mourning Dove, 8 x 10 inches, Oil on Board Wow- this piece was really a labor of love.  I tried many days to get this painting to completion and had nothing but problems.  This happens when you really don't know what you want to paint...or you have a unclear, fuzzy photo reference.   This give and take started when I looked out my living room window to check on my bird feeders and noticed a most charming neighborhood Mourning Dove perched on a tree limb.  Of course I snapped it's picture with my phone followed by going upstairs to get my real camera.  When I got back to the window, this adorable creature moved on. So I tried to make the best of a bad picture and it sure took a long time.  I'm pleased with the outcome and I've learned quite a bit from this painting.  Did I say it's the same lesson I learned pretty early in my artist journey:  You can only paint what you can see!